May 18, 2009

Is anyone clean enough?

Michael Leahy, co-founder of Top Conservatives on Twitter and one of the primary organizers of the national tea parties, has filed suit (PDF warning) for libel against a woman he claims is a former Obama staffer, among others. The post that spawned the lawsuit is available at teablogging dot net - no link per general blog policy to not give undue attention to trolls. Most of the content of the blog post is available in the PDF, along with the link to the blog post. The post claims that Leahy has managed to incur $150K in debt, including a substantial portion owed to the IRS.

I have to admit, I'm torn on this one. Leahy's trying to make a case that he's not a public figure, but I think it's possible with his level of activism that he's moved out of the realm of private citizen. His suit doesn't seem to recognize satire (does he really think that anyone would truly believe that he's "a member of some alien race of Lizard People" or an "insane clown"?). I'm a believer that when you stick your head up, you'd better be certain that your nose is clean at least in the area where you're sticking your head up - think Ward Churchill. Having a leader of a movement that's protesting taxes, who owes over $80,000 to the IRS, doesn't speak well as to the motives of the leader.

On the other hand, this smacks of Joe the Plumber tactics. One of the parties named in the suit has gone so far as to say that Leahy and another TCOT member must be destroyed. Has the Internet turned the political arena into something where none of us on either side are clean enough to withstand the added scrutiny, or are we just in an age where those few who are sparkling and shiny and pure are too reluctant to throw their hats in the ring for fear of being ripped apart?

May 14, 2009

2. Readings are Not Averaged Correctly: When the software takes a series of readings, it first averages the first two readings. Then, it averages the third reading with the average just computed. Then the fourth reading is averaged with the new average, and so on. There is no comment or note detailing a reason for this calculation, which would cause the first reading to have more weight than successive readings. Nonetheless, the comments say that the values should be averaged, and they are not.

4. Catastrophic Error Detection Is Disabled: An interrupt that detects that the microprocessor is trying to execute an illegal instruction is disabled, meaning that the Alcotest software could appear to run correctly while executing wild branches or invalid code for a period of time. Other interrupts ignored are the Computer Operating Property (a watchdog timer), and the Software Interrupt.

6. Diagnostics Adjust/Substitute Data Readings: The diagnostic routines for the Analog to Digital (A/D) Converters will substitute arbitrary, favorable readings for the measured device if the measurement is out of range, either too high or too low. The values will be forced to a high or low limit, respectively. This error condition is suppressed unless it occurs frequently enough.

12. Defects In Three Out Of Five Lines Of Code: A universal tool in the open-source community, called Lint, was used to analyze the source code written in C. This program uncovers a range of problems from minor to serious problems that can halt or cripple the program operation. This Lint program has been used for many years. It uncovered that there are 3 error lines for every 5 lines of source code in C.

And people wonder why there's such a cry for audit and review of software that might impact people's lives.

Kris Goldsmith is unhappy. Largely, it seems, because he opposes allowing soldiers to become members of Iraq Veterans against the War who didn't actually serve in Iraq. After all, not everyone had the opportunity to commit murder.

I case you're unfamiliar with Kristofer Goldsmith, here's a vid I shot at the DNC protests. I received a message through YouTube from Goldsmith a few months ago asking me to remove the vid - you can read the message here.

I'd love to have some sympathy for this guy, but I can't, not after what he did, and not considering that he doesn't seem to take personal responsibility for his actions. If I had time, I'd do a thorough fisking of his resignation letter, but since I don't, I'll just mention that he's embarrassed that our soldiers aren't more competent at killing each other, and he's upset that someone's advocating sabotaging Iraqi troops - something he himself did.

May 12, 2009

Just so you know, I have officially become stern, disapproving Moron Pundit, not silly, happy-go-lucky Moron Pundit.

Why?

Shut the fuck up, that's why.

Anyway, I hereby make the following list of demands backed by the threat of double face cocking you and your loved ones:

Anquon Boldin will be given to the Bears without any pay and will like it. He will also change his name to Anthony.

People will now exclusively refer to the budget deficit as "Barrack's AssCracker."

alexthechick will immediately make with the girl on girl she's been 'threatening' for as long as I've fanta... known her. This making of the girl on girl will be done on a stage while a college marching band plays Stars and Stripes forever in front of an American-flag waving crowd.

Plebian is not invited to this event because he is funnier than me and therefore has a better chance of getting into a flag-girl's pants.

The Left is now required to watch and care about every beauty pageant from now until the end of Western Civilization (5:32 Eastern Today). They must also discuss the progressive, cultural significance of these events while watching 2girls1cup and flaggellating themselves with a Cat-O'-Nine-Obama-Pins.

Labron James is henceforth banned from the practice of black magic. Nobody is that good.

Dick Cheney shall replace Michael Steele as head of the RNC. alexthechick will assume the new position of Legs of the RNC. Auditions for Boobies of the RNC will be held shortly.

Any Republican that would prefer Colin Powell to Rush Limbaugh is henceforth no longer a Republican but shall be classified as a Douchetool. I don't care if you like Rush. You just have to like Colin Powell less.

Wanda Sykes is to have her kidneys removed and be left in a bathtub with a note.

That note should simply state, "You are not funny."

Leftists who call the Tea Party protesters racist should be forced to eat shit on television.

Keith Olbermann should be forced to eat Jenean Garafalo on the White House lawn.

Michael Moore should then be forced to eat Keith Olbermann making the liberal equivalent of a Turducken. Maybe a TardFucken or something.

May 08, 2009

The country hopes to circumcise 460,000 men over the next five years,
after a series of studies found that circumcised men were two to three
times less likely to contract HIV, said Janet Mwambona, a public health specialist in charge of the project.

"For the public health benefits of the preventive effect of circumcision to be realised, the Ministry of Health is supposed to cover 80 percent of eligible males in Botswana," she said.

Government is running television and radio campaigns to encourage men to visit clinics for safe circumcision procedures.

"All primary and district hospitals are currently booking clients and performing the procedure," added Mwambona.

About 50 healthcare providers, including 27 doctors have undergone training on surgical circumcision.

The rapid spread of HIV and AIDS once threatened the survival of the
approximately two million people of the land-locked southern African
country, until the introduction of antiretroviral drugs in 2003.

Powell said the GOP is "getting smaller and smaller" and "that's not good for the nation." He also said he hopes that emerging GOP leaders, such as House Minority Whip Cantor, will not keep repeating mantras of the far right.

"The Republican Party is in deep trouble," Powell told corporate security executives at a conference in Washington sponsored by Fortify Software Inc. The party must realize that the country has changed, he said. "Americans do want to pay taxes for services," he said. "Americans are looking for more government in their life, not less."

Powell, secretary of State during the first term of former President George W. Bush, made waves last year when he came out for the Democratic presidential candidate, then-Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. Powell described the 2008 GOP candidate, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, as "a beloved friend" but said he told him last summer that the party had developed a reputation for being mean-spirited and driven more by social conservatism than the economic problems that Americans faced.

Powell also criticized other GOP leaders, for bowing too much to the right.

He blasted radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, saying he does not believe that Limbaugh or conservative icon Ann Coulter serve the party well. He said the party lacks a "positive" spokesperson. "I think what Rush does as an entertainer diminishes the party and intrudes or inserts into our public life a kind of nastiness that we would be better to do without," Powell said.

He also said that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate last year, is "a very accomplished person" but became "a very polarizing figure." He said the polarization was created by Palin's advisers.

Powell said he does not want Republicans to turn into Democrats but rather to build a vibrant party.

On other fronts, Powell said he was concerned that the Pentagon is reportedly going to create a new command to manage military cybersecurity affairs. "I smell a bureaucratic fight taking place inside the administration," he said. "I'm always nervous when people want to create new commands because new commands create new stovepipes."

CNN Senior Producer Sasha Johnson announced Monday she's leaving journalism to serve as press secretary at the Department of Transportation, meaning yet another member of the Fourth Estate has left to join the Obama administration.

Yup. Any time O-Man denies having the MSM in his pocket, just mention this fact.